Amazon Studios, the "Hollywood" division of the online shopping giant, launched a free online tool Friday that will let aspiring film and television makers create storyboards for scripts, complete with characters and dialogue that can then be shared with others for feedback.

"Storyteller provides a digital backlot, acting troupe, prop department and assistant editor," Roy Price, the director of Amazon Studios, said in a statement.

Amazon Studios has seen 14,000 movie scripts and 4,000 series pilot scripts submitted in the two and and a half years since it launched. Storyteller scans those scripts, or will import one of your own, and identifies scene descriptions and possible "cast members" from a library of characters, props and backgrounds.

Once completed, the storyboard can be published on Amazon Studios where other users can comment on the project.

Currently, 25 movies from Amazon Studios are on the development slate and in the processes of being tested with audiences.

Last week, Amazon Studios greenlit its first original programs that will premiere exclusively on Prime Instant Video, a bid to contend with Netflix's recent original programing push.

This old-school pencil storyboard was created by Jan Pinkava to map out Pixar's "Geri's Game" short.
Daniel Terdiman/CNET

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Joan E. Solsman is a senior writer for CNET focused on digital media. She previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and the Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere in New York City and has been doored only once.
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